The East Side Kids take on Japanese and German saboteurs.


This movie is part of the collection: Comedy Films

Director: Wallace Fox
Producer: Jack Dietz, Sam Katzman, Barney A. Sarecky
Production Company: Monogram Pictures Corporation
Audio/Visual: sound, b&w
Keywords: Comedy; East Side Kids

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: Jennabar - - May 2, 2010
Subject: choppy recording, pathic storyline.
This is very interesting to watch for historical reasons, but that's about it. The idea that someone is anti-American because they are Japanese is a good example of an Ad hominim argument. It bears watching, if only as a lesson from the mistakes of others, but it was a sad point in American history.
The quality of this recording isn't very good; it starts cutting in and out about 12 minutes into it. The storyline is pretty pathetic, though one scene that is pretty good is the boys reading the bill of rights in the policeman's office. I think that is highly ironic, especially since the bill of rights doesn't specify skin color.

Reviewer: keygrip - - August 29, 2009
Subject: nostalgia is worth remembering
When I was a kid of 6,7 or 8, I thought that the East End Kids/Dead End Kids/Bowery Boys were the best thing in the movies.
This Poverty Row flagwaver brings the memories flooding back.Interesting and a little sad to see Robert(King Kong)Armstrong in a supporting role.

Reviewer: DJ Psychomike - - August 28, 2009
Subject: Period Piece
Not one of the best East Side Kid films, it is however a potent capture of the attitudes working class people had after Pearl Harbor. Released just months after the attack, the Kids try and enlist to "kill a million Japs" and when unable to do so, attack an Asian owned shop.

This leads to them confronting a spy ring which was actually real, The Black Dragon group. The FBI actually busted this group in May of 1942, though now forgotten today this would play a key factor in getting the public to back internment camps for Japanese and Japanese Americans. We actually had three camp levels for Japanese Americans, one for Japanese Americans from the west coast, one for Japanese believed to be spies, one for Japanese who refused to state their loyalty to the United States. Very few Americans remember any of this, or that the spy who had mapped out the targets for the attack on Pearl Harbor was kept in the one for spys, though we didn't know what he had accomplished until after the war.

There was also camps for Germans and German Americans, but because people who were pro- Hitler were allowed to run them ( they actually had pictures of Hitler in the cafeterias and there were a number of still unsolved murders in them) these camps are no longer mentioned in America. You will hear of the Japanese camps, but nothing about the German ones.

Let's Get Tough! captures the anger people felt and racism that resulted from it. Perhaps that's why over time almost all our popular culture rather than confront the racism and anger shifts instead to war with Germany. We didn't march into Berlin or end Hitler's hold on Europe, that was the Russians. Yet most Americans think we did. We didn't have the same racism for the Germans - because they were white. (After news of the death camps began to be released to the public many would get angry at the Germans. German soldiers in camps in the U.S. were suddenly given the cold shoulder, which the public hadn't done until the news was released).

LET'S GET TOUGH! is a more homest portrayal of the attitudes on the homefront than the vast majority of war films and is worth watching for that. Click on my name for reviews of more finds here at the Archive.

Reviewer: surfvh - - March 21, 2007
Subject: Da Boyz iz a liddle mixt up, but dey gets da job done
Deyz iz a produck uv der timez. So whatz da beef wid dat? Dey bumblez aroun, but dey getz da bad guys what iz tryin ta take down da U S uv A. Dat wuz de idea back den. So dey dunnit. Da boyz getz 5 stars fur der effertz.

Reviewer: jimelena - - December 19, 2005
Subject: Get tough?
These guys are not all that tough.
But we all like the Bowery Boys don't we?

Reviewer: Bro Bubba - - October 29, 2005
Subject: Fun
Too bad this is such a chopped up copy of this fun installment. It is truely an interesting look at our history.

Reviewer: Spuzz - - September 6, 2005
Subject: Japs and Germans, Oh My!!
LetÃÂs Get Tough is one of those movies that people probably regret years later that they made. Full of awful racist Jap talk and jokes, this East End Kids story details how the kids want to join the military to defeat the Japs. Since theyÃÂre too young, they decide to clean the town out of those dastardly Japs. They find one, throw fruit at it (without anyone doing anything to stop them) and he pulls a short sword out to menace them! The cops say to stop annoying him! HeÃÂs only Chinese! HeÃÂs on our side! When the kids go back to apologize, the Chinese manÃÂs dead! ItÃÂs all part of this huge Jap and German Spy ring! The kids see to it that this is stopped At All Costs!

IÃÂm sure all of this was fine when it was made (1942) but viwed now, you realize of course, that this is clearly a product of itÃÂs time. Full of stereotypes, German and Japanese. Funny how the East End Kids have a black kid in the group, and heÃÂs not spared either. Gee whiz.